The term "physiognomy" refers to features of the
face, especially so skull - basis of physiognomy
when, in the narrow sense, these features are used
to infer the relatively enduring character or
temperament of an individual. On this site,
physiognomy connotes a broader meaning, i.e., it
refers to relatively unchanging facial features
that might convey messages about any inner or
hidden aspect of the person. Most of these facial
features have as their basis the bony structure of
the skull, on which the soft tissues lie. These
features include the shapes and positions of major
areas and landmarks of the face, such as the
forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, and mouth.
Physiognomy (Gk. physis, nature and gnosis,
knowledge) is traditionally a folk science, based
upon the idea that the study and judgement of a
person's outer appearance, primarily the face,
reflects their character or personality. The
shortened form "physog" is also a slang word for
"face". The term physiognomy is also used to refer
to the general appearance of a person, object, or
terrain, without reference to its underlying or
scientific characteristics. This article will deal
with the folk science.
Absolute predictive physiognomy, in which there are
believed to be invariable 100% correlations between
physical features (especially facial features) and
character traits; this has been disproven #
scientific correlation physiognomy, in which there
are believed to be rough statistical correlations
between physical features (especially facial
features) and character traits due to a person's
physical preferences that are caused by
corresponding character traits, such that gene
mixing causes the correlations; this type of
physiognomy is therefore allegedly based on genetic
determinism of character. Although this type of
physiognomy has generally been disproven as well,
the idea has been revived as personology.